PALESTINIAN journalists jailed by Israel have reported widespread abuse in custody, including routine beatings, starvation and sexual assault, according to testimony published by the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
In a February 19 report, the media rights group said it interviewed 59 Palestinian journalists imprisoned by Israel after the Hamas-led attacks of October 2023. All but one reported experiencing “torture, abuse or other forms of violence”, it said.
The alleged abuse meted out by Israeli authorities ranged from baton beatings and electroshocks to excruciating stress positions – including under sewage water – as well as sexual violence. Two journalists said they were raped.
Journalist Sami al-Sai said soldiers stripped him and penetrated him with a baton and other items in a small cell in Israel’s Megiddo prison, an ordeal he said left him in a “severe psychological state”.
“Descriptions of sexual violence appeared repeatedly in the testimonies, with journalists describing assaults as intended to humiliate, terrorise and permanently scar them”, said the CPJ report.
Other accounts detailed psychological abuse, including threats to kill family members, sleep deprivation through loud music and medical neglect, such as being denied treatment for severe bone fractures and eye injuries.
Journalist Amin Baraka said he was repeatedly threatened for his work with Al Jazeera.
“An Israeli soldier told me, word for word in Arabic, ‘Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh defied us and remained in the Gaza Strip, so we killed his family. We will kill your family, too,’” Baraka told CPJ.
“In every prison they transferred me to, I was subjected to physical abuse. I still suffer from the blows to my stomach … and I need surgery,” he added.
CPJ said the reports of abuse from dozens of journalists expose a “clear pattern”.
“These are not isolated incidents”, said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “They expose a deliberate strategy to intimidate and silence journalists, and destroy their ability to bear witness.”
Many of the jailed journalists were also denied basic legal protections, said CPJ.
Eighty percent of those interviewed were held under Israel’s system of administrative detention, meaning no charges were brought against them. One in four said they were never allowed to speak to a lawyer at any time, according to the watchdog.
At the same time, the vast majority of those interviewed reported experiencing “extreme hunger or malnutrition”, corroborated by photos CPJ reviewed showing detainees’ “gaunt faces, protruding ribs and hollowed cheeks”.
Some journalists said they survived solely on “moldy bread and rotten food”.
The CPJ said the detainees lost an average of 23.5 kilogrammes (54 pounds) while in custody.
“We returned from hell”, journalist Imad Ifranji said.
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg called for the international community to “take action” against the alleged widespread mistreatment of journalists in Israeli jails.
“Humanitarian law sets unequivocal standards for the treatment of detainees, and there needs to be meaningful accountability for failure to meet these standards,” said Ginsberg.
Israeli authorities have long faced allegations of rampant abuse targeting Palestinian prisoners in their custody, including torture and rape, particularly at the notorious Sde Teiman facility. Last year, leaked footage documented Israeli prison guards gang-raping a Palestinian inmate at Sde Teiman, prompting a scandal in Israel.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir previously celebrated the “abominable conditions” of Palestinian prisoners and pledged to keep food provisions at the “bare minimum” required by law.
Israel’s targeting of Palestinian journalists during its genocidal war in Gaza is also well documented. Nearly 300 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the war broke out, according to a tally by Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
In one of its deadliest attacks in August 2025, Israel carried out a “double-tap” strike on a hospital in the south of Gaza that killed five journalists, including Al Jazeera photographer Mohammad Salama, as well as contributors to Reuters and The Associated Press news agencies.